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Riddle me this - I eat really healthy, yes? I’m really keen on yoga, yes? Have a fairly healthy lifestyle, yes? Well then, why when I’m placed on a “Health Challenge”, does it all go out the window?!
Okay onto my ‘fessing up!
Breathing:
No. Seriously did not get a chance to actually stop and breathe yesterday. I had two tiny people that I absolutely LOVE attached to me until really late.
Juicing:
Managed the usual smoothie, okay.
Diet:
mm. what didn’t I eat. Actually I think I’m being too hard on myself. Snacks were a plum and apple. Lunch was a salad with quinoa, apple, tomatoes, olives and capsicums, and greens. I had too many coffees and dinner was tofu and left over salad. I know I slipped in some sweet biscuits occasionally. It just seemed like I was eating all the time and badly, but maybe it wasn’t so bad.
Exercise:
Just a 20 minute walk with two tiny delights in the pram.
Meditation:
No - fell into an exhausted sleep.
Water:
Not quite enough. I got thirsty too many times, so I obviously was not drinking enough.
Incantations:
Not unless “I’m a little teapot” counts.
Summary:
It was a beautiful day really, couple of days as I stayed overnight. I think maybe looking into the delightful faces of two tiny little baby girls and listening to their gorgeous little voices should be as good as, if not better than meditation and incantations! And surely dancing around the room to the Wiggles would count as exercise.
Hello All.
Yesterday was a bit topsy turvy! I realise what is missing in my life - Planning!
Breathing:
Yesterday was a day of shallow breathing! Mostly in panic. I wanted to spend the day on assignments and on-line tests to catch up with my study, but it didn’t pan out that way - so I was a little stressed.
Juicing:
No green smoothie! I missed it soooo much. Arggh! This is why I need to plan.
Diet:
Not good. Well, not bad. I think I’m being a little hard on myself here. I didn’t get lunch until late in the afternoon, and had two attempts at making dinner and burnt them both. I had a melt-down and ate two pieces of dark chocolate. So much for no added sugar.
Exercise:
Yay! Got one. Yes, I did thirty minutes on the bike.
Meditation:
No. I should have. - Learnt my lesson there.
Water:
Mostly I did okay here, but I was out - without snacks, and without water for a few hours. I was unprepared and suffered for it. I was hungry and very thirsty. Very dumb.
Incantations:
No. Dammit. I must do these.
Summary:
How did I feel? Tired, stressed, and generally blah. I had a rough night sleep wise. Its pretty clear why.
So, I need to plan! I visited Crazy, Sexy Life and I am going to start a menu plan. I’m on the road a lot, so I am going to pack a cooler bag every time with vegan snacks, smoothies and water, water, water. I cannot believe I went out without my water bottle. I never do. I think I need a backpack.
Yesterday was one of those days that don’t go according to plan. I usually like to live in the moment, so to speak. But my mind was on the study that was screaming at me, and I wasn’t ‘rolling with it’. If I had just let go and enjoyed the interruptions, I’m sure the day would have panned out better healthwise.
I’m starting to understand the purpose behind this assignment don’t you?
So question for you - are you a planner? How do you plan your day foodwise and how do you prepare for outings?
Here I am, sorry! I was at school all day yesterday, which meant a 5am start, two hour drive, lots of lectures, another two hour drive and I got home at around 9ish last night.
I was absolutely exhausted!
How did yesterday go? Okay, exercise was a big nil, as I didn’t get time, and yoga was only 20 minutes of Ujjayi Pranayama. Which was nice though. Just before an Anatomy and Physiology written test. I felt lovely and centred and cruised through the exam.
Okay I need to sort this somehow so that I can write it up in an essay form later.
Breathing:
Check - Ujjayi for twenty minutes. Wish we’d had time for some yoga poses though. My back struggles with the long drive. I so needed some space between my squished up vertabrae!
Juicing:
Made a green smoothie to have in the car on the way up. It had in it - about 2 cups of spinach, an apple, strawberries, blueberries, chia seeds, soy protein and G-Tox mix.
Diet:
Okay, not real flash as I wasn’t prepared. I spent too much time on Friday studying for the exam and not enough food prep. I had grapes for morning snack, lunch was brazil nuts and raw cashews, a plum and nectarine, and dinner in the car on the way home was a rather large but not ripe peach. Where is the vegies and leafy greens!
Exercise:
Nil!
Meditation:
20 minutes.
No Television:
This is a given, so I’m not going to continue to comment on this one. This is my lifestyle choice, so it will get very repetitive and boring!
Incantations:
Nil - still need to work out what I want these to be.
Water:
Check - probably easily drank the mandatory 2 litres without any fuss. I need my water though. Should look at that, maybe my cells are still dehydrated.
Summary on how I felt health wise:
Really really tired and emotionally drained. My stomach was sore and tender and I just felt fragile all day. I think this could be from the driving up and down that highway and the stress around the study load. The work load is getting heavy and I’m not feeling in control.
But on a positive note - I still really love it.
This should be interesting. As part of my course, I have to complete a 10 day health challenge and journal the results. The principles I am to follow are:
- breathing - check! I will breathe. Maybe that’s not what they mean. Interesting, I have to make a note of before and after the challenge. Are they making an assumption that I’m not breathing now? Haha - no I’m a yogini, of course I get it.
- juicing. hmm might struggle there. too many sals. I’ll just hope my green smoothies will cover that.
- diet - limit amount of meat. Replace with fruit, nuts and vegetables. Check! haven’t eaten meat for 25 years!
- exercise - okay, could do with a slight kick up the butt with that one.
- meditation - see above.
- drinking water - check! Drink buckets!
- no TV, newspapers! - easy peasy. We only get two channels here anyway and I don’t watch the news or read newspapers, because I can’t take all the distressing news.
- incantations - check - see point one.
Okay. I wish all my assignments were this easy.
Anyway. I shall journal my journey.
Part 2:
To make this more interesting, otherwise my assignment is going to be pretty dull, I’ve decided to add to that list ‘no added sugar‘. I know I have way too much sugar these days, all natural sugar like agave and maple syrup, but sugar nonetheless.
I eat too many of these:
All from this amazing lady: http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com . I LOVE her website.. seriously.. she is the best! Check it out, you will be hooked.
The reason for adding or I should say taking out “added sugar” is because I have been reading this blog: http://myyearwithout.blogspot.com/2010/02/natural-sugars-are-still-added-sugars.html. I’m pretty sure I would have more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day with all the fruit and vegies I eat. Add to that these yummy raw treats, and my blood would be pure 100% sugar!
I’m still healing and I need to try everything, and using this 10 day health challenge is an ideal opportunity.
Stay tuned!
I am in the middle of an assignment and was looking for an old paper from my Uni days and stumbled across this rant. I was obviously having a really bad day!
Anyway, I thought I would share. I’ve forgotten how hard I used to work. And I wondered why I eventually got sick.
Study Difficulties for Mature Age Women
Motivation: knowing how. If you are unsure, you procrastinate. Training courses teach you step by step practical approaches on how to do things, whereas uni gives you an assignment, or essay on an impossible topic. You must then find out the information using an impossible library system, sort through the data, and write the essay by a due date or you will suffer the consequences. Ie (disappoint your family, your bank!, your employer, and finally yourself)
How do you write an essay? Guess; or trial and error. How many chances do you get before you’re out? Research! Yes, you even have to research how to write an essay; how to reference; where to find the information and how to hand the completed assignment in!
Motivation – either a reward or a consequence. The consequences of uni are wasted fees, time etc…
If you know how to do something you are excited at being able use that knowledge, excited about what’s ahead, eager to grasp further knowledge. Whereas, uni is more about the consequence.. You want to learn the subject but mostly you have to teach yourself. If you do not produce this damn essay or assignment in the right format, referencing the right way, acknowledging everyone down to the guy that made you your coffee, then you will lose marks. And Uni is about the mark! Not about the learning…. My experience at Curtin….
So – fear of failure is huge… You must not only pass, but excel. Everyone must be proud of you! Or you have wasted a huge amount of money, time and potential income. No wonder students fail… this is a huge amount of pressure.
And the pressure on mature age students is greater. No matter what the school leavers believe. I’ve heard both sides of the story. Mature age students have family responsibilities. And as most of them are women, then the responsibility is greater. Because like it or not, women having careers is still believed as being self indulgent. Women are still the primary carers of their children and their spouses. Yes, spouses! So when a woman is studying, she must make sure that all her familial duties are firstly taken care of. Unlike a school leaver, who can place study as the highest priority and plan their study times around their biorhythmic cycles. Mature age women also are expected - probably because we in still in the transition stages of equality - to contribute considerably to the family income. Ie, the family must not experience too much financial distress due to the self-indulgent studying of the lady of the house.
I have read articles congratulating busy supermothers on obtaining their Masters in this and that, explaining their success on setting their alarms for 3:30am and studying for 2 hours before the family stirs and the demands of the day begin. And then going to work for 10 hours! Returning home from work to prepare meals, children’s clothes, chores etc… Why do we applaud this?
Self-care
What is that? When in the busy schedule of the superwoman is there time for self care. How many women visit the dentist every six months? How many women have their health under control, visit the gym, dietician, have a holiday? And country women have the additional handicap of travel. These women have to drive several kilometers just to get a carton of milk. Study is difficult for these women. So the superhuman skills must once again be tested.
Wow, I was seriously peed off! I hope this isn’t offensive to anybody.
Does this strike a chord with anyone else? With International Women’s Day in March, maybe this is worth some discussion. Do mature age women do it tougher at University?
Hello all.
What have I been up to? Well, I’m up to my glutenous maximus in study and absolutely loving it. I had a Bowen class last night which was truly fabulous. Of course, its a great way to meet people, hanging around in your undies. Note to self, must buy some new undies!!
The drive home was a killer though. It was a late one. Tomorrow I’m up again at 4:30am ready for another long day. Hubby is coming with me and taking the opportunity to do some shopping. It will be easier with company. Driving up is okay, its the drive home that is hard after a day of lectures.
Tomorrow, apart from the usual anatomy and physiology, and nutrition, we will be looking at Aromatherapy. Exciting.
I’m still on the cleanse, and feeling great. Fabulous in fact. So no food post, I’m sorry. I haven’t been cooking anything of interest. Still only soups and kitchery.
Caio!
Goodbye Dial-up! Yes. Finally. Maybe I will be posting more now. We’ll see. I want to give my webpage a bit of a facelift as well.
Okay onto today’s subject.
I’m on a yogic cleanse of sorts. Not the really strict one, just my version because I working with a tough student. Me!
Breakfast
I start the day with a green smoothie. And I put into it the following:
- 1 cup of rice milk
- cinnamon
- 1 peeled apple
- cooked spinach
- 1 tbs vital greens (this stuff is amazing!)
- 1/4 cup frozen strawberries or blueberries
Lunch
For lunch I have Kitchari:
- 1 cup of soaked mung beans or puy lentils
- 1 cup of basmati rice
- 1/4 tsp black mustard seeds
- 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp Massel Vegie stock
- 1/4 tsp tumeric
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
- 4 cups of water
- 1 tbs coconut oil
Heat the coconut oil in pan, add the mustard seeds, salt and cumin seeds. Heat until seeds pop. Add rice, mung beans, garlic and tumeric, stir and heat through. Add water and bring to boil. Boil for 5 mins uncovered and then cover and simmer for around 20 mins.
Dinner
Vegetable Soup
Varies depending on what ingredients I have, but tonight:
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
- 1 orange sweet potato, peeled and chopped
- 1 leek, diced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped.
- shredded cabbage or spinach or any leafy green
- 1/2 cup of red lentils.
- approx 1/4 cup of roasted red capsicum strips.
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp Massel Vegie Stock
Heat oil and add vegies. Put on lid and simmer for a few minutes. Add lentils, paprika and salt and heat through. Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer until vegies and lentils are tender. Blend and serve. Season to taste.
For snacks during the day I have brazil nuts, raw cashews and fruit depending on how hungry I am.
This is good… How many can you relate to.
Living with a Food Blogger
Sorry for the long silence, but I have internet problems. Anyway, a quick rant and big question on why would anyone do this???
The lovely people at our cruelty free shop here in Western Australia were attacked by - get this - another animal welfare group! Beautiful people that they are, they are not naming the group and hold no malice towards the group, as they believe that the people that abused them were not representing them.
I am gobsmacked. You expect the usual attacks from people threatened by vegans (which is also really perplexing - cos we should be scared of them, because we are made of meat! ).
Anyway, I wonder what on earth they were thinking.
I have to sell some of my beautiful cows. I am devastated. We have had a tough year, and we only managed to get 18 rolls of hay off the property. We normally average around 45-50. With me not working, it has placed a huge financial strain on us and we can’t afford to buy any hay in. Its usually around $AU60 a roll. And the girls will easily need at least two a week.
My husband assures me that this is the best way, because watching them starve to death is the other option. (which so obviously will never happen!!!) I’d sell myself on the streets before that happened.
So, we have some potential buyers coming tomorrow. I am going out for the day as I can’ t bear it. Hubby says he will screen them thoroughly for me to ensure that they will be going to someone who will love them.
 Ellie
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